Review: Chaleur Coffee Costa Rica Calendaria (Mobile, Alabama)

Chaleur Coffee is a small-batch roaster out of Mobile, Alabama. I’ve not ever visited Mobile, but based on Chaleur’s website, their cafe looks exactly like the sort of place I would want to visit one day. I was particularly taken with their bold statement, “We believe that if you don’t like black coffee, maybe you just haven’t tried the right one yet.” That was certainly true for me – I spent years thinking I could never enjoy black coffee until I had one I adored, which led to many more that I adore. The folks at Chaleur were kind enough to send me two bags to sample prior to their online store being rolled out.

V60: Milder than I expected – there is a hint of lemon sweetness and tobacco on the finish, but it tasted surprisingly bland in this preparation.

AeroPress: Tangy notes of meyer lemon and turbinado sugar with a dry finish. A bit one-dimensional, but sweet lemon isn’t a bad dimension! If only I had a piece of lemon meringue pie to go along with this…

Chemex: Same problem as the V60 batch – even with an extended extraction time (4:40, compared to my usual 4 minutes), it came out watery in flavor.

French press: This was the best of the four – a nice balance between the tangy flavors of the AeroPress preparation and the mild, approachable flavors of the pourover methods. I did steep this a little longer than my usual 4 minutes (steeped for 5 minutes) because it appears this particular coffee requires a little more coaxing for the flavors to emerge.

Summary: This coffee tastes best to me in the immersion methods, and I liked it most in the French press steeped longer than the standard 4 minutes. There are subtle notes of lemon and sugar throughout.

From the roaster: No notes provided

At the time of this post, Chaleur Coffee’s online store is not yet up and running, but it will be soon! They currently are offering 10% off your first order when you sign up for their email list.

Disclaimer: I received this product gratis in exchange for a fair and honest review. Even though I received this for free, I treat and test it the same way as if I had paid for it out of my own pocket.